Selene Gallio (Earth-616)
| CurrentAlias = Selene | Aliases = Demon Huntress, Dark Huntress, Lady Selene, Moon Goddess, Daughter of the Moon, Mistress of the Fire, , Black Priestess, Black Queen, Dark Priestess, others | Identity = Secret | Alignment = Bad | Affiliation = Formerly Inner Circle, , , | Relatives = Marcus Domitius Gallio (husband, deceased); Amara Aquilla (Magma) (granddaughter); | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = formerly Black Rome, Necrosha; Hellfire Club Mansion, New York; Nova Roma, Brazil; Roman Republic, Italy | Gender = Female | Height = 5'10" | Weight = 130 lbs | Eyes = Brown | Eyes2 = Red (using power) | Hair = Black | UnusualFeatures = | Citizenship = Roman | MaritalStatus = Widowed | Occupation = Sorceress | Education = Self-taught over centuries | Origin = Selene is a type of mutant, an immortal External, and magician. She has been around for several millennia, but claims to have been old when human beings were just appearing. | PlaceOfBirth = Central Europe | PlaceOfDeath = Black Rome, Necrosha | Creators = Chris Claremont; Sal Buscema | First = New Mutants #9 | Death = X-Force Vol 3 #25 | HistoryText = Hyborian Age Selene was born 17,000 years ago in central Europe, "After the Oceans swallowed Atlantis" and "Before the rise of the sons of Aryas". Selene's mother was young when she bore her, but would be dead before Selene spoke her first words. The tribal elders ordered her mother's people to sacrifice themselves to Selene until none remained. They thus gave her sustenance and her name. She was an old enemy of sorcerer Kulan Gath. Red Sonja reportedly managed to kill him and his spirit would not manifest again until the modern age. . Thus, Selene was active at least as early as the Hyborian Age. Selene is assumed to have been wandering the world for millennia. Rome During the times of the Roman Empire, Selene had an eye on Senator Eliphas, who was used by others for their own benefit. She came before him, offering him her eternal love and immortality, if he helped her sacrifice the countless souls of Rome. The thousands of souls that she would feed on would allow her to become as powerful as a god. She instructed her pawn to draw symbols around the city in his own blood for the ritual. However, Eliphas made one small act of compassion by telling a slave girl he gave ruby earrings to about what was going to happen. Her father informed the authorities, who captured both Eliphas and Selene and sentenced them to be burned at the stake. Selene awoke before it could happen and set the flames back against their would-be executioners. Furious at Eliphas for seemingly betraying her, she took his life-force and transformed him into a vampire-like creature, swearing that he would never see her again. Modern Times Selene created the land of Nova Roma in Brazil, bringing outsiders to her paradise with her psychic powers and forcing them to worship her as the Dark Priestess. She led everyone to believe Nova Roma was a colony of the ancient Roman Empire, until she was discovered by the New Mutants. Intrigued by seeing the young heroes use their powers, Selene traveled to New York City. In New York, Selene happened upon Rachel Summers when sensing her immense power. She attempted to drain her lifeforce, but was prevented by the X-Men. Soon after, Selene became interested in the Hellfire Club and tried to join it's Inner Circle. Sensing Rachel Summers and Magma nearby, she defeated and offered them as gifts to the Club. While the adolescents were rescued by the X-Men, Selene was admitted and given the position of Black Queen. When Kulan Gath transformed all of Manhattan into a Hyborian Age land, Selene was unaffected by the dark sorcerer's spell. It was revealed she was an old enemy of Gath, the two had feuded long ago during the actual Hyborian Age. Selene's spells caused Storm and Callisto to remember Gath was an enemy, eventually leading to his defeat. Rachel Summers plotted to kill Selene and the other members of the Hellfire Club, after recovering the memories of the Phoenix Force, whom she believed to be her mother. Having drained the X-Mens' life-forces temporarily to battle the Beyonder, the spirit of Wolverine was drawn into her dreams, where he learned her intentions. Rachel confronted Selene in her room at the club, and was about to kill her when Wolverine arrived. He tried to reason with the young X-Man, and when she attempted to carry on, he stabbed her through the heart with his claws, saving Selene. Joined by Sebastian Shaw, Harry Leland and Friedrich von Roehm, Selene sought revenge for Rachel's attack. Encountering the X-Men in Central Park, the two groups clashed, even though the Hellfire Club were outnumbered by the heroes. Selene proved herself in combat by disintegrating Rogue's gloves as she tried to save Colossus from Leland's density-altering power. To both teams' surprise, the time-displaced mutant hunter Nimrod appeared, declaring that they were all viable targets. Within moments the robot had vaporized von Roehm and proceeded to attack the others, leading to Nightcrawler being shocked and Shaw launched into the upper atmosphere. Combining their efforts, the Hellfire Club and X-Men were able to defeat Nimrod. Leland used his power to change Shaw's orbit-bound course while Selene animated power cables to restrain the advanced Sentinel. Even with the Black King smashing into Nimrod at terminal velocity and Wolverine poised to slash apart the exposed internal systems, the mutant hunter was still able to teleport to safety. Having exerted his power to its limit, Harry Leland died. The two groups parted amicably, willing to cooperate in future . Selene is the only known surviving External. She personally killed and drained nearly all the others. Selene tried to reform the Inner Circle with demonic help, and later battled Storm's team of X-Men as they sought out Elias Bogan. Eliphas, changing his name to Eli Bard, searched the world for Selene, despite the curse she placed on him. He eventually found her in Nova Roma, but was too scared to approach her. He planned on completing her original plan from a few thousand years ago, by sacrificing the thousands of Purifiers for her. However, he changed his plan when he saw the Technarchy's abilities to reanimate the dead. He resurrected an Apache tribe he slaughtered many decades ago, including Caliban, whom he presented to Selene as his gift, to find all the mutants in the world as her army and sacrifice, which Selene gladly accepted. To help her collect all the deceased mutants in the world and claim their souls, Selene gathered mutants with deadly abilities, including Wither, Senyaka, Blink, Mortis and of course Eliphas. They traveled around the world, reanimating long dead friends and foes of the X-Men, before journeying finally to Genosha, where 16 million mutants had been killed by Wild Sentinels sent by Cassandra Nova. Selene sent her reanimated slaves to attack the X-Men on Utopia. While the X-Men were occupied defending themselves from foes and friends long lost, Selene ordered Eliphas to reanimate all the deceased mutants of Genosha. But because of M-Day only a million or less of the 16 million mutants on Genosha had retained their abilities. With a million mutant souls ready to be offered to her, she sent her Inner Circle to collect the mystical knife needed to make the ritual work. Selene's Inner Circle attacked Utopia and killed Onyxx, Diamond Lil and Meld. They managed to return with the knife and capture Warpath in the process. Selene commanded her Inner Circle to prepare the ritual. X-Force arrived at Genosha and tried to stop the ritual, but they were to late. Selene absorbed the reanimated souls of a million mutants and ascended to godhood. During her ascension, X-Force attacked her Inner Circle, killing Senyaka and Wither (Eliphas had been killed by Selene earlier). Selene, a goddess, was then alone against X-Force and Warpath managed to stab Selene in the heart with the same knife used to perform the ritual. Selene exploded and it is presumed that she died. | Powers = Life-Force Absorption: by psionically draining the life forces of other human beings into herself, by physical touch. If she drained a person’s entire life force from him or her, the victim dies and the victim’s body crumbles into dust. It is unknown how often Selene must drain life force from another human in order to survive. It is known, that great expenditure of power causes Selene to age, but she can rejuvenate herself by absorbing more life force. Selene will not age as long as she maintains her supply of absorbed life force. *''Psychic Vampire:'' If Selene drains only part of a victims life force, Selene achieves a measure of psychic control over her victim’s mind. Through unknown means, Selene can cause a human being to become a psychic vampire like herself, but be subordinate to Selene’s own will. Physical Enhancement: Selene has physical strength, stamina, speed, and reaction time that are all several times greater than those of a normal woman. *''Superhuman Strength'' *''Superhuman Endurance'' *''Superhuman Reflexes'' *''Superhuman Speed:'' ability to momentarily move at speeds rivaling those of Quicksilver. Shadow-Morphing: allowing her to dematerialize or use solid tendrils of darkness to manipulate objects Astral Projection: Her telepathy is strong enough for her to survive in her astral form. Telekinesis: her telekinetic abilities gives her complete psionic control over inanimate objects. *''Telekinetic Animation:'' can cause inanimate objects to move according to her will by projecting part of her absorbed life force into them. *''Inanimate Disintegration:'' She can cause inanimate objects in her presence to disintegrate. She cannot, however, rearrange the atomic or molecular structure of matter. Pyrokinesis: could psionically generate and project intense heat and flame from and around her body or direct it at certain distances. The exact radius remains unknown. She was also able to manipulate flame created from other sources and could magnify their intensity or snuff them. The flames Selene generated could also be illusory in effect; for example, she could focus the power on an object making it appear to be on fire while it was not being damaged by the flames at all. Selene instinctively created a psionic force field about her entire body that protected her from the effects of the heat and flame she created and from other sources as well Telepathy:'''High Order telepath. She is capable of displaying various psionic feats with the minds of others including reading and communicating with thoughts over vast distances. *Psi-Screen:' possesses a psychic mental shield to protect her from psychic attacks. *Mental Bolts:'' can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness. *''Hypnotic Trance:'' can induce a momentary hypnotic trance state in people around her. Often used along with her speed to create the illusion of teleportation. Immortal: her aging process is greatly retarded and she can apparently regenerate injured or missing cells from even near-fatal injuries. *''Rapid Healing:'' ability to endure injuries (within unknown limits) without lasting harm or even feeling pain such as knife wounds. Sorcery: possesses considerable magical abilities, having gained a great deal of mystical knowledge over the millennia. The number of magical effects that she can create has yet to be cataloged, but it is known that she can cast and counteract spells and summon extra-dimensional demons. Darkforce or Shadow Manipulation: It is seen that she can turn herself into a shadow figure enbling her to blend in. | Abilities = | Strength = Selene possesses superhuman strength, enabling her to lift (press) about 8,500 pounds under optimal conditions. | Weaknesses = | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = | Notes = * Selene appears to age as she uses magic especially when she over-exerts herself. | Trivia = * The former Hellion, Firestar was originally trained by the White Queen for the sole purpose of assassinating Selene. * The main character Selene in the Underworld series is based on her.wikipedia entry * She appears as a protagonist in . * Her styles such as dress styles, personality and powers are commonly used in other types of media. * At over 17000 years, she is the oldest known mutant, and possibly the first ever to be born. | Links = | Wikipedia = Selene (comics) }} Category:Hyborian Age Characters Category:Sorcerer Supreme Candidate Category:Energy Absorption Category:Immortals Category:Pyrokinesis Category:Regeneration Category:Telekinesis Category:Telepaths Category:Killed by Warpath Category:Post-M-Day Mutants (The 198) Category:X-Men Villains Category:Single Characters Category:Damocles Foundation members